Child Support: Private Sector

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of collection of unpaid child support maintenance by private companies to which the work has been outsourced.

James Plaskitt: holding answer 28 February 2008
	Since August 2006, the Agency has referred over 63,000 cases to debt collection agencies with a total debt of £3335.9 million. By the end of December 2007, £9.3 million had been collected from 15,619 cases, of which 3,092 had paid in full. Additionally, in the same period, the seven-day warning letter sent by the Agency to inform clients that their debt is being transferred to the debt collection agencies has resulted in an additional £4.7 million being collected by the Agency.
	This additional child maintenance collected is contributing to the Agency's Operational Improvement Plan commitment of collecting over £200 million in additional arrears by March 2009.